With new media platforms popping up left, right and centre, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to look. With the web giving freedom of speech a whole new meaning, the online magazine community continues to expand rapidly, sometimes making it hard to keep up.

Profile Pub, the creative baby of Melbourne artists Jasmine Phull and Buzzby Gray, is one worth looking up. Making their mark with hyper-local content and ethereal, visual stimulants, this innovative duo represents and reports on the creative hub that is Melbourne.

We caught up with Jasmine to talk about creative freedom, why Melbourne is ace for arts and what’s in store for their next print issue.

MILK BAR: Where did the idea for Profile Pub come from?
Jasmine Phull: Profile Pub is the result of two friends with complimentary skill-sets (writing and taking photos). As a writer I’d always wanted to publish my own periodical, and after returning from a three year stint in Europe it finally felt like the right time.

Buzz Gray and I launched Profile Pub Issue 1 in August 2011, since then we’ve developed our ideas and expanded into a multi-platform vehicle promoting Melbourne’s innovators via print, online and events. We just want to celebrate the city’s innovators and meet great people while doing it!

We’re just two girls: we’ve got degrees, we’ve been places, we’ve seen stuff and we’ve surprised ourselves along the way. Be nice, work hard and people will take notice. Simple. It hasn’t gotten easier; we’ve just gotten better.

MB: How does your website differ from the print magazine?
JP: Profilepub.com was initially launched because there are only so many pages in a magazine. Online means you aren’t bound by anything, and our aversion to collaborations in a financial capacity means complete creative freedom. Everyone profiled on the site (or in the magazine) is there because we personally think they are doing something great. We hope you do too!

We both have full time jobs in the media industry and this is a love project as well as an ever-evolving CV. Profile Pub has played an inimitable role in our career successes and for that we are grateful.

MB: What makes Melbourne ace?
JP: Melbourne is the innovator’s city – the people here want to create on their own terms, and with their skill-set in tow they’re more than happy to ‘learn on the job’. This mind-set is infectious and as a result there is growing community which not only inspires but also supports one another. And that is the ethos championed by Profile Pub.

MB: What’s next?
JP: THE SECOND ISSUE! Gah. This time around we’re speaking to some pretty established Melburnians about all the little stories that make life great.

We go into their homes to show you things no other magazine can. To see photos of art curator and gallery owner John Buckley with Keith Haring during the New Yorker’s 80s trip was pretty mind-blowing. Buckley was 100% responsible for Keith Haring’s coming to Melbourne!

Speaking to ex-Models member and Round the Twist theme-song composer, Andrew Duffield, was equally moving. These people are treasure-chests waiting to be discovered and we’re there with our map and camera. Profile Pub – it’s original content bred in Melbourne.